1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to an electrical adapter, and more particularly to an electrical adapter for joining two electrical connectors having different designs and configurations.
2. Description of Related Art
A computer mainframe and its periphery device, for example, a monitor is usually electrically connected together by a cable connector assembly, wherein the cable connector assembly has two connectors at its two ends with one connector being used to mate with an electrical connector of the monitor and the other being used to mate with an electrical connector of the computer mainframe.
As the computer technology evolves, new type monitors (for example, digital monitors) with advanced functions are developed which are equipped with connectors having a different configuration in comparison with that of the old ones. To connect the computer mainframe with the new type monitor, an adapter is necessary whereby the cable in the present use can be utilized. The adapter includes two connectors in both ends wherein one is configured suitably for mating with the connector in the new type monitor, and the other is so configured that it can mate with the cable connector assembly.
The connectors of the conventional adapter are usually interconnected using a flat cable, a single printed circuit board (PCB), or discrete conducting wires. However, the conductors of the flat cable and the discrete conducting wires for interconnection need to be connected with terminals of the connectors by soldering, respectively, thereby decreasing production efficiency and complicating production procedure. When one of the connectors of the adapter has more than two rows of terminals, to mount such terminals onto a single printed circuit board having only two circuit faces is relatively difficult.
To solve problems described above, U.S. Pat. No. 6,176,743 B1, assigned to the same assignee as the instant invention, is developed. The electrical adapter disclosed in '743 patent utilizes two printed circuit boards with different lengths to interconnect two connectors with different configurations and designs. This design solves the problems above ideally. However, in some circumstances, Electro Magnetic Interference (EMI) suppression is needed in signal transmission, especially in high speed signal transmission. Therefore, an electrical adapter used for low EMI circumstances is desired.